The Viajante

Temple Square this week

2011-09-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

Oh boy. I actually did take a bunch of fun pictures this week, but just didn't have a single minute to post anything up here. Temple Square looked especially beautiful this week. The rain and the dark clouds just made it even more amazing to get to spend so much time in that place. And I also love working downtown. I need to start including some downtown shots too. I haven' take any yet, but it's a neat small downtown with lots of small fun places to photograph.

Enjoy!

Temple Square September 12, 13

2011-09-13T19:02:00.001-07:00

I know, a picture of the ground? Yes, and I love it.

Temple Square this week

2011-09-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

An entire week without any Temple Square pictures, huh? Well, I still got to see it every day, so I'm pretty lucky. For those of you who weren't as fortunate, here's a compilation of this week's pictures.

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Donut Falls

2011-09-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took the Livster for her very first hike at Donut falls. The pretty little monkey slept the whole way up and down, leaving dad with a sore back but still grateful for the Baby Bjorn our friends Katy and Clint gave us. What a life saver. The hike was moderate, but for lazy sedentary fatties like the lady and I, it was a pretty tough one. But this is the beginning of our return to hotness. We're even buying a jogging stroller tomorrow. Yey for fitness... or at least partial non-fatness.

Here's a snapshot of our hike I recorded with my phone. Thank you Google!

View Donut Trail in a larger map

We had a blast up there and loved going up with our most awesome next-door neighbors.

September 3, 4 and 5

2011-09-05T20:47:00.001-07:00

September 1 and 2

2011-09-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

State and South Temple

Church Administration Building

August 30 and 31

2011-08-31T21:22:00.000-07:00

It's still so very hot here in Utah. It's been in the upper 90's for the last few weeks and sometimes it's just unbearable. But hey, I sacrificed a little and spent a few minutes outside in the heat, in my suit, just to give my 3 readers these pictures. Enjoy!

This is Charles Savage. Don't ask me who he is. There's a statue of him on Temple Square. Does anyone know why?

Conference Center

Temple Square August 29

2011-08-29T19:47:00.000-07:00

These touchscreen stations are placed all over Temple Square and they are so very cool. You can get a tour of Temple Square within Temple Square. It's like a dream within a dream!

Temple Square August 27 and 28

2011-08-28T21:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday and Sunday were Temple Square date nights. Well, it was more of an extended family date night. The sis-in-laws and kids were in town and we got to go visit the square on Saturday and Sunday. We had such a good time there. What an incredible place. It's a different experience when you go there as a tourist. I spent about a half an hour listening to the Apostles' testimonies of Christ in the North Visitors Center. I am so very grateful for those men and their inspired leadership.

Temple Square August 25 and 26

2011-08-26T19:43:00.001-07:00

Temple Square August 24

2011-08-24T19:50:00.001-07:00

Just beautiful.

Temple Square August 23

2011-08-23T22:47:00.001-07:00

Temple Square August 21 and 22

2011-08-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

Here are my photos for yesterday (Sunday) and today. One is of the main lobby of the JSMB. The other shows a quick view of the constant summer wedding chaos around Temple Square. It's neat to see all these weddings, but I'm ready for rain and snow to come and shoo most of these people away. They get in the way of my pictures.

Temple Square August 19 and 20

2011-08-20T20:58:00.001-07:00

Temple Square August 18

2011-08-19T14:48:00.001-07:00

Christmas in August! These guys were working on the Christmas lights and making sure they were all working. Now that's what I call preparation.

Temple Square August 17

2011-08-17T20:39:00.001-07:00

Temple Square August 16

2011-08-16T21:02:00.001-07:00

I enjoy sitting here and eating my lunch sometimes. It's very relaxing.

Temple Square August 15

2011-08-15T13:11:00.001-07:00

Temple Square August 14

2011-08-14T08:29:00.000-07:00

Relief Society building.

Temple Square August 13

2011-08-13T14:57:00.000-07:00

D&C 88:6-9

6 He that ^aascended up on high, as also he ^bdescended below all things, in that he ^ccomprehended all things, that he might be in all and through all things, the ^dlight of truth;

7 Which truth shineth. This is the ^alight of Christ. As also he is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was ^bmade.

8 As also he is in the moon, and is the light of the moon, and the power thereof by which it was made;

9 As also the light of the stars, and the power thereof by which they were made;

Temple Square August 12

2011-08-12T16:13:00.000-07:00

Hyrum Smith rocks.

Temple Square August 11

2011-08-11T19:02:00.001-07:00

Here is one of the several statues at temple square. They're so beautiful.

Diapers, iPod and chocolate cake

2011-08-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

People tell you that parenthood is a crazy thing; that life as you know it will completely change; that from sunrise to sunset you are no longer in control. Although I felt I was as ready as one could be, especially with my extensive 31 years of preparation for this moment, I didn't really know that every single aspect of my existence would be controlled by a 7-pound, chubby-cheeked insomniac. Granted, I do love her even more than a pistachio covered chocolate profiterole next to a succulent Crepe Suzette; that may be the reason either one of us is still in that house. But there's absolutely no college course, no interplanetary internship or even heavenly visitation that could truly prepare you for the change. It's like carefully planning to be broad sided. Just not very effective.

So much has changed overnight in my perspective, actions, priorities and even lifestyle. For example, my paradoxical appreciation and complete disgust for diapers has increased one hundred fold. I could even write a complete novel about my love-hate relationship with that plastic based miracle. I love its endurance and almost certain reliability. But the contents of the package are continually evolving into more than what I would ever want to handle. Some of you may say: "Oh, just wait until she's a toddler. You ain't seen nothing yet, buddy." I'll just take my time and slowly ease into the more awful stage of this whole process.

Sometimes I wonder what is really happening to the Mrs. and I. Last week we went to the grocery store and bought a calorie-filled, preservative based, prepackaged chocolate cake. This is the very first time we have ever done something so absurd. This is very much not like us. Have we no self control anymore? Or is this just a nonsensical knee jerk reaction to sleep deprivation?

Our newly bought iPod Classic, which actually blasted Rhapsody in Blue when the little one was introduced to planet earth, has played nothing but a consistent hum I purchased for 99 cents called "Brown Noise for Babies". So much for storing our eclectic 40 GB collection of tunes.

It sounds like I'm griping, doesn't it? It's far from what I'm trying to do. I would give up iPods, iPads, clean shirts, desserts or precious REM hours of sleep, as long as I got to meet that beautiful little dark haired princess. I've embraced the change, conformed to mayhem and loved every minute of it. Thanks Livy for turning my world upside down. It's a much better world this way.

Temple Square August 10

2011-08-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

I was feeling a little uninspired today, so the creativity juices just weren't flowing. I usually enjoy using my photo lens for my Temple Square shots. It just lets me be a little more daring with the angles and style. But today I grabbed my 18-55mm instead. That choice, coupled with the blahness of the day generated this more than flat picture. But hey, it's another Temple Square shot.

Temple Square August 9

2011-08-09T10:22:00.001-07:00

This is a little hidden, but a really nice place. I need to eat there some time.

Temple Square August 8

2011-08-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And I couldn't be happier.

Temple Square August 7

2011-08-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

Here's my picture for today. The work that goes into making the gardens at Temple Square so beautiful is really impressive. Lots of people working there to make it so wonderful.

Temple Square August 6

2011-08-06T10:32:00.001-07:00

Temple Square picture August 5

2011-08-05T15:29:00.001-07:00

First real picture of the series. Enjoy!

Daily Temple Square picture

2011-08-05T08:08:00.001-07:00

Now that I work downtown right in the heart of Salt Lake City (more to come on that), I get to walk through the most beautiful place in town, Temple Square. I decided I'll try to take a picture a day of this unbelievable place. Some pictures will be taken from my phone and some from my SLR. For those days that I'm either not at work it forgot my camera, I will pull a picture from my extra stash (I'll take extras every day). I think this can be fun.

Missing my blog

2011-06-22T20:11:00.001-07:00

Hey folks,

I really miss writing here, friends. I have been contemplating jotting a few words down for a while now, but just haven't been inspired enough. We are still finishing our little girl's room and it's coming together really well. It is looking beautiful and we can't wait to see our little monkey in her room. The flowers are in, curtains are in and the crib is ready. All we are missing are the mobile, one more piece of artwork and bed skirt. Guys, you will love it. Here is a picture of this baby's adorable mommy. She is looking so beautiful and she will certainly be a wonderful mom.

Vancouver

2011-04-28T14:40:00.001-07:00

We had such a great time in Vancouver. What a pretty city. Here are a few pictures of us there and a couple of tips when visiting.

- Stanley Park - beautiful park with stunning views. Parking is not free. It cost us $2.50 for one hour. They accepted credit cards. Prospect point has a great view of the bridge. Make sure you also visit the totem poles. Right across the street from the poles you get a perfect view of downtown too.
- Gastown - didn't actually get to stop and walk around. Parking is paid and hard to find. Traffic is a little intense at times. Lots of shops to visit. Looked fun, but we just didn't have time to stop.
- Vancouver LDS Temple - not too far from the border if you're driving. Fun for temple buffs like me. This temple was #33 for me and #34 for the lady. Really small, but nice.
- Granville Island - great market with lots of delicious pastries, flowers and hand made artifacts. Free parking available. Bring cash for gifts. Most places didn't accept credit cards.
- Other places we didn't have time to visit: Queen Elizabeth Park and Christ Church Cathedral. We drove by the church and it was really pretty, but it started raining too hard and we just didn't feel like visiting a flowery park in the rain.

Vancouver BC Temple

I believe this is Christ Church Cathedral

Dork!

Just us

Downtown Vancouver

She makes me smile

Delicious salmon burger

View of downtown from Granville

Yumminess at Granville

Week off

2011-04-24T22:59:00.001-07:00

We are just so excited to be able to take the week off and come to Washington and spend some time with family. This is the first time we drive up from Utah together and the drive really wasn't too bad. I hope to post pictures (including some of the pregnant one, Katy) and some fun things we did by the end of the week. This trip will be a temple/ friends/ family visiting one, with a day trip to Vancouver, BC mixed in to add a little bit of extra fun. We will keep you posted.

Baby room

2011-03-23T22:05:00.001-07:00

So now that we know we are having a girl, I've started planning what to do for her room. Candace and I came up with the great idea of doing a Monkey Garden themed room. I'm obsessed with monkeys and Candace really wanted to do a flower room, so we just joined the ideas. A few things are going into this room. First, there's a beautiful painting my grandma painted for us a few months ago that we absolutely love and really want to use in the room. Here's what it looks like.

Also, we have a quilt that was given us as a wedding present that Candace thought might go along really well with the painting. Here it is.

So now that we had a super bright color palate to start with, we just needed to decide how to put it all together. We started looking around online for ideas and found a super nice wall sticker of a tree and a monkey hanging off of it. So I decided I would base my illustration on the one I saw online and redraw it myself, adding my own ideas and colors to it. So this is my design of it so far. The colors might still change a little bit, as we try to match it closer to my grandma's painting. I added a crib and a painting similar to my grandma's to this mock up to get a better idea of the whole picture. I think this will look nice. I love the little girl monkey I illustrated here. It's very similar to the original one I saw online, but I added a few things to make her a little more girly.

More coming soon as we get more done. We just bought the crib tonight (which is a little different from this one in the picture). It's time to really get to work and start working on this room. How exciting!

Mobile upload

2011-02-24T10:42:00.001-08:00

So I downloaded the new Blogger app for my phone, which lets me post to my blog on the go. I don't really think I will be using it that much because typing on my phone can be a real pain. But this allows me to post pictures I take with my phone for all off you to see. So here is a picture I took of Neville reading a book. (Man, I'm glad we have a baby on the way)

Note about Glenn Beck's comment

2011-02-04T14:59:00.001-08:00

Just a note on Glenn Beck's comment about the newly-elected president of Brazil today. He said that she was "former communist and former terrorist". I like Glenn, but sometimes comments like these go a little too far and I'd just like to clarify a few things, in case you were listening to the show today, like I was.

Dilma was never a terrorist. She was a Marxist student during the time when Brazil was going through an extremely violent and unilateral dictatorship that left the country's economy and morale in shambles, not to mention the hundreds of murders that government was responsible for. Dilma was part of the student protestors, who seeing the government's extreme right-winged (dictatorship) direction, chose to fight against that government by siding with the other opposite, the extreme left. This woman was tortured, beaten and arrested several times for trying to overthrow a government who enacted censure policies in the Brazilian media, curfews and other extreme laws to keep the dictatorship alive. Although her socialist tendencies were extreme in her "fighting" days, with the success of a booming capitalist society in Brazil, she has quickly adapted to a new way of governing and I am hopeful for Brazil's future.

Now to call her a terrorist is extremely offensive to me, especially because the word "terrorist" is what we use when we talk about Osama Bin Laden and his crew. Never in her life or career has Dilma Rouseff done anything that should come even close to characterizing her as a terrorist. Again, I may not agree with many of her left-winged policies, but Dilma is an educated and successful woman who, through the proper channels of a democratic society, came to power as the first female president in a country usually labeled as an extremely machista society. She is replacing a left-winged president who, despite similar socialist tendencies, helped Brazil become one of the top 10 strongest world economies and helped millions of families come out of poverty and gain their dignity back.

I think at times we have to be careful with labeling good people because we disagree with them. Mr. Beck went a little far in my opinion. Although not a Marxist or Communist, I was one of the millions of students who in 1992 marched the streets of Brazil to protest against a corrupt and unfair government. Many of my friends were self-proclaimed communists. However, our peaceful protests were successful in impeaching a horrible president who harmed the country tremendously, which allowed the democratic process to once again take its place. We were not terrorists. Neither was Dilma Rousseff.

Rest of New Zealand Trip

2010-12-28T12:09:00.000-08:00

Alright, alright. I know it's been a couple of months. Just got busy and forgot that I have 3 amazingly loyal blog readers. Thanks guys.

I just need to finish the report of our trip to New Zealand. I miss that place so much. What a beautiful country. Here's the unedited report Candace wrote on the iPod, together with some pictures. Hope you enjoy. Here's also a map of where we went those days:

View Auckland Days 6-8 in a larger map

Driving easier. One tree hill. Hills. Animals. Breakfast. Beaches. Wh is pronounced F. Whangamata beach. Beautiful and scary drive. Hot water beach. People dig holes and hot water comes up from the ground. Natural spas. Seashells. Hahei. Unbelievable view. Fernando didn't want to leave. Cathedral cove. Hike. Cute old couple on moderate hike. Had to explain Babe movie because I said "bah ram ewe" to a sheep and fer looked at me crazy. Pretty pictures.

Rolling hills littered with animals. Green grass, bright green, green all the way down to the water for every stream, you can't even see dirt. Pretty pasture and then there's a palm tree right in the middle hen you realize you're in the middle of a tropical island. Maybe like Maui? Holes naturally have these striations kinda like the Peruvian hills the they dug out to farm on but smaller dig outs and it's natural. It definitely helps the animals. So pretty.

One Tree Hill

Auckland from One Tree Hill

Sheep everywhere

On the way to Coromandel

Whangamata - So beautiful. Oh, the beach is beautiful too.

Whangamata

Hot Water Beach.

See the holes people dig to get super hot water?

Hot Girl in Hot Water Beach

Hahei - Hike down to Cathedral Cove

Sheep on the hike down

Hahei

Cathedral Cove

North Island countryside

Matamata- Hobbiton was here

Day 2 driving in nz. Left side of the road is a breeze now. Going to Te Puia cultural centr recommended by cousin mark... Reviews are mixed online. But we are sucker tourists for this kind of stuff even if it can be cheesy so bring it on.

Te puia was interesting. They make you feel a part of the place. For the performance they bring you in as if you were a neighboring tribe. They needed an English speaking "chief" and since we were with a bunch of Asians and one family from Malaysia so obviously they singled Fernando out and asked him to be chief when no one volunteered (or as Fernando says they begged after swing your brilliance, when really it was just 5 min of silence that had them begging). So I got to handle the camera and video camera at the same time while he played chief. Then because I was the chiefs wife I had to participate in dances. Let's leave it at that.

Our tour guide was a darling. Everything was "you see love" and "little darling". Very cute.

Rotorua

Our Guide and Fernando, the chief

Dancers

Geisers

Hamilton Temple

Piha beach is unreal. Black sands but not rocky. Very soft. Multiple colored shells with golds and greens and blues and purples. Steep cliffs in the water. Deadly waves and suicidal surfers. Eddie Bauer apparently almost died here.

Piha Beach

Our little car

Piha Beach

Random Observations: Kia ora means a lot of things. Our hotel claims it's "green" when it doesn't do one thing green. Kiwi birds are kinda like the dodo bird, no wonder they're going extinct. Gaisers are so smelly it turns your stomach until it makes you want to puke. Houses are smaller here. I'm allergic to sulfur apparently. Road signs are all about a bird telling you how to drive, yet a bird just kamakazied into our car and got ran over so how smart was that? Roads are smoother here. All roads are backroads here but you take them at 60 mi/hr. Orange cones are skinnier here. Technology doesn't exist here: i.e. Hotels don't give you hardly any megabytes(10) but they think it will take you 30 minutes to use it. The mauris performing were immediately attracted to Fernando's phone. I was taking video with it. Multiple of them came up to me mid performance and asked me what it was. Very little iPhones have been seen here. One way bridges where you can't see on coming traffic you have to yield to is scary! Houses are better kept here than australia. The Hamilton NZ temple is a mini LA temple. Fernando learned the word colt. There are no bakeries! I want French bakeries with fresh bread baked daily! Everything closes early. I thought that was France but apparently not.

Words they can't spell: tyres. Veges. Centre.
Perfectly good words they have given up for more confusing ones: stroller for pram, elevator for lift, parkinglot for carpark, pharmacy for chemist. Shopping cart for trundler.

Fernando says worst thing about driving on the left side of the road is the person sitting on the left side of him. Funny boy.

Days 4 and 5

2010-10-20T20:58:00.000-07:00

View Days 4 and 5 in a larger map

9/8/2010. Martin place. Fun place that feels like NYC. Lots of beautiful buildings and beautiful stores. People are very well dressed. Everyone has an iPhone. Old barracks where they kept prisoners brought from England in the 1800's. Church. Old and beautiful inside. Hyde park. Just a pretty park with statues. Cockatoo island. Ok, Cockatoo island. (Sigh). This one island in the middle of the harbor. Creepy creepy creepy. Island completely empty. And people actually pay to camp there! Felt like Shutter Island. Spent an hour there because the ferry only came every hour. Thanks, travel guide. The Rocks. Amazing pastries. Paddy's market. Lots of cheap souvenirs and fruits and vegetables. Capitol theatre. Went there to see how much tickets were. Told to come back in a couple of hours and wait in line to try to get cheap tickets. Then subway and Coles. Then rest then dress up to go out again.

Theater. Didnt make it. Then wondered around downtown forever. What a beautiful city. Australian Hotel restaurant at the Rocks: Fernando's
Kangaroo Pizza - marinated kangaroo in native pepper with roasted capsicum and native berries. Fancy
shoes. Wonderful pizza. Super expensive, but worth it. Then walked back down to Circular Quay for the last time to see the Opera house at night.

Martin Place

Martin Place (taken night before)

Barracks

St. Mary's Cathedral

Hyde Park

Cockatoo Island

Waiting for ferry at Cockatoo Island

Lemon pastry. Yum!

Kangaroo Pizza!!

Good Bye Sydney.

View Auckland (Day 5) in a larger map

9/9/2010. Airplane from Sydney to Auckland. Busy airports and duty-free shops around the whole terminal. Not really a duty-free store, more like the whole terminal was a duty free area. Watched A-team on plane. Wonderful airline and great food. Debacle at rental car company. Europcar now has 2 strikes. Right side steering wheel, left side driving, scary! GPS works perfectly. Hurray! Check in at hotel. Not as nice as Sydney's, but not bad. Walk around small downown. Indian food (Delicious!!!). Crazy architure in city. Empty. Queen street fun. Early closing time.

Downtown Auckland

Auckland waterfront

View from waterfront of downtown

Queen Street

Downtown Auckland

Beautiful sunset

Up in the Air

2010-10-15T13:17:00.001-07:00

Just wrote this article for my company blog. Wanted to share it here too.

When was the last time you had an amazing airline experience? Mine happened exactly one month and seven days ago on an Air New Zealand non-stop 13-hour flight from LAX to AUK on the best flight of my 30 frequent-flyer years. Having traveled overseas several times, I was expecting the usual sub-par treatment: two incredible movie selections such as Alvin and the Chipmunks 3 or a shortened 4-hour edition of Avatar on a 12 inch screen sitting 25 feet from my seat, and a mildly improved version of Lean Cuisine’s Chicken Marsala for dinner with a 3-month old chocolate cake for dessert.

I also came prepared to endure the unavoidable boredom. At times like these, I thank the technology gods for my beautiful and unfailingly reliable gadgets. I had my iPod Classic fully equipped with 30GB of hand-selected music; an iPod Touch with 3 of my favorite movies and a handful of mind-numbing, brain-draining games; a Microsoft Zune with 2 months of podcasts; 3 books on paper plus my HTC EVO Kindle App ready with one extra book; and of course, the up-to-3-charges external battery pack.

To my astonishment, what I experienced showed me that perhaps hope is not completely lost. Picture this: smiling crew members, gourmet dinners with ice cream for dessert, 75 movies and over 250 TV show episodes to choose from on a 9 inch personal screen, 180 music albums, free leather covered headphones and an on-board concierge that could help me with everything from currency exchange rates to city maps. All this flying non other than coach. My gadget-filled carry-on was untouched from take-off to landing.

But although my fantastic transpacific experience brought back a slight glimmer of optimism, I’m slowly succumbing to negativity and despair. And recent highly publicized airline merges just add more fuel to my skepticism. Reality set in when I boarded a crowded Delta Airlines flight from Salt Lake City to Indianapolis shortly after my New Zealand trip. Why are they turning my premium mode of transportation into nothing more than Greyhound with wings? Do they really think that stale peanuts, 28 inches of leg room and extra-baggage fees will keep me coming for more? The sad answer is yes, they do. When your options are limited to Mediocre Airlines and SadFlight USA, make sure your stomach is full, your batteries are charged and your Dramamine is handy.

Days 2 and 3

2010-09-29T21:07:00.001-07:00

This is day 2 and 3 of Candace's account of our trip. Enjoy!

…Continuing on with my journal from our trip to Australia and New Zealand this month (the zoo and Bondi were probably my favorite places in Australia, besides staring at the opera house of course)

9/6/2010. Let's take this opportunity to talk about time… 3pm Monday at home is 8am on Tuesday here in Sydney. That means home is 17 hours behind. It took us three days to figure that out. Ok moving on.

Caught the ferry to the zoo. How often do you get to take the ferry to go to the zoo?! And what a ride. The views are beautiful. Once docked we take the gondola to the top of the zoo. Traveled above the elephants, while seeing the city across the harbor. Wow.

First exhibit? Koalas we promptly feel in love with. Mother and her baby were adorable. Then there was the obnoxious one who enjoyed waking up the fourth koala by launching itself over to the other koala’s tree.

Platypuses (no picture, they are nocturnal, and abnormally small), Tasmanian devils (video), emus, and kangaroos (did I mention I got to pet a kangaroo?) -- Hey, Fernando did too, but the picture I took ended up too blurry, which happened to 98.7% of pictures I took (italics written by Fer) We also saw little wallabies and Pygmy hippo and tigers and giraffes and lions and elephants and the coolest native birds ever... We're making a little kids photo book. It's easier.

The view from the zoo was amazing, since we were directly opposite the main part of the Sydney Harbor. And then there was the posing Giraffe who seemed to move his head directly over the opera house every time our camera went to our eyes.

Next, took ferry back to Circular Quay only to take a longer ferry past the zoo and to Manly Beach. Walked around in very soft golden sand, watched the surfers for a while, ate a burger at Burger Me with the most amazing fries (they had pepper, salt, and lime juice), ate ice cream and went back on the ferry 3 hours later. Perfect. Plus, all this in beautiful 70 degree weather.

Botanical gardens are next with 2 hours till dusk. A little nervous because we don't have too much cash left (transportation took it all). One source said the entrance fee was five dollars and the other said fifty! Wandered around forever trying to find entrance until we realized that all the little plants around us had labels! So somehow we made it in. Hoping that it was free and an open format the whole time, we explored. No, we weren't trespassers. It really was free! Took pretty awesome pictures of the all the trees and gardens, the city buildings (discovered that one of the buildings seems to have a temple on top) and stayed till dusk. At dusk we (and by we I mean Fernando) took my favorite picture of the Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

Braved the supermarket on the way home. Everything you can imagine at a ridiculously high price. Speaking of a ridiculous price… I have figured out why locals are so dang skinny... You can't actually afford to feed yourself here! Earlier, a little set of 4 bite size profiteroles cost twelve dollars! Course that was at the Lindt Chocolate café, but we (now by we, I mean me) couldn’t pass that up!
Only exception is the Subway Restaurants where you can get a 7 dollar footlong (and yes a footlong is still a footlong even though you’re in a Metric world!). This will be our backup food though. Would rather experience the local food. What is local food? Not really sure. It seems like American food although I did see a kangaroo burger but couldn't bring myself to order it.
Asleep by 7:30pm. Fer stayed up and watched Australian X Factor. He said it was good.
9/7/2010. Woke up at 3 then 4 then 6. Out the door by 8am. Off to see the temple to take a few pictures. Not enough time to go through a session.
Lets pause a second to make some observations about Sydney. They are probably completely unfounded, since I am only observing what is next to the train tracks. First, the city is truly an immigrant city. You can see each community as you pass on the train. There were Indian areas, Arabic areas, Asian areas, etc.
Second observation… everything is pretty run down. It seems like maybe they have an excess of space that they don't bother to rebuild when a building gets run down so they just abandon it. Or maybe they just can't afford to. But even lived in homes are falling apart. No fresh coats of paint. No tailored lawns. I would guess that they had a massive explosion in immigrant population in the 1950s because it seems most residential areas (disclaimer again. I only saw the areas immediately adjacent to the train tracks) seem to be built in the 1950s with little to no renovations since.
As you get further out on the train, you hit more of a suburbia feel with business centers and more cars. Residential looks a little better kept, although still the same time period. Cars here look just like the US (aka not Europe tiny). But buildings are definitely not a US feel because of them being run down.
Ok. Moving on. Temple was small and beautiful. Stained glass with red and blue and green that you can't really see during the day but must look awesome at night. Temple grounds include a variety of buildings like distribution center, institute, family services, mission home, etc. An entire complex. The surrounding area was clean (still a little run down but nicer than the other areas). Walked back to the train station and met some nice Mormon missionary boys from Utah and Arizona with auzie accents. Took the train a ways with them and talked for a while. They said there are 5 stakes here in the state and they cover pretty big areas.

Next on to the 2000 Olympic area. But it was completely abandoned. Maybe because it’s a workday. Not nearly as entertaining as Munich Olympic area. So prettier but more boring because we are obviously visiting in the off season! Although the fountains Fernando thought were really fun.

All in all, this train ride was horribly long and boring. Going to Bondi next in hopes we'll get our fill of people and shops. Hoping that would wake us up.
And it certainly did! Bondi was cold! More beautiful than Manly Beach but cold and not as many shops (I hear they have a market up on weekends but it wasn't a weekend) and to be honest there were too many creepy people there (not really creepy, but someone thought everyone was... including the nice little 80 year old lady and the beautiful family with 3 kids and the mom pushing a stroller). Strange people wandering around a high tourist spot by themselves is a little strange. Fernando’s favorite spot though and he said there were no creepy people. I think I was a little tired and in a strange mood so oh well. Paranoid Candace.

Went back to hotel and took a break. Relaxed till dark and then decided to go to George street. Posh designer stores. Queen Victoria Building turned mall was stunning. And to top off a night of high fashion, we ate at burger king... Er... Hungry jacks. I know. We're fancy. Fer ate a burger called "The Australian"and they put beets in it. Beets?!! What are they thinking? Of course Fer threw the beets away.

...I'll post another few days in a few days : )

Our Latest Greatest Vacation

2010-09-26T20:56:00.001-07:00

Alright. So every time we travel, Candace pulls out the iPod notepad and takes detailed notes of our trips so we don’t forget anything. So she’s put this post together and here's a little sampler of our vacation. Since being back, she’s tried to cut it down as much as she could but it’s still very long so she divided it up into multiple posts. Hopefully through our scattered thoughts and pictures, you will feel like you’ve been there too! And at the end of the trip report, I'll post all the main pictures of the trip. I only took 765 pictures, but I promise I won't bore you with all of them.

9/3/2010. Traveled from SLC to LAX flying Delta. Writing this note 24 hours later and can’t even remember the details of the flight. Too many flights ago. Too many airports ago. So tired. But not done traveling yet so might as well write. LAX showed me my first interaction with New Zealand locals, waiting for New Zealand Air. Not pretty. Sitting reading while Fernando abandoned me to charge his phone at a charging station (quickly becoming his most common pastime). Some guy came up, shoved Fer’s stuff aside and sat down, man-handling another woman’s stuff on the other side of him. Kept reading without even looking up. Annoyed. Apparently, other woman was holding the seats for her kids and grandkids. She starts yelling. What a mess. I just read the book as loud as I could in my head. Didn’t feel like getting into it at midnight Mountain time. Started wondering if locals’ interactions often led to arguments and if this was normal. [no indication of this in NZ, thank heaven]

Boarded 747 monstrosity. New Zealand Air has a huge selection of movies (50+), tv shows (100+), music and everything else you can think of to keep yourself occupied for your initial 13 hours flight. But instead, we slept. More leg room than normal, and chairs lean back more than normal. Meals are decent too. Slept for 8 hours without even realizing it. Can you ask for anything more when you’re taking a transpacific flight? My only disappointment was that I put 10 movies and shows in my queue and I watched one.

New Zealand Airport. Empty because it’s still early in their morning. Back on to a plane and off to Sydney. Somewhat local flight of three hours and still 35 movies to chose from. Another breakfast. I love this airline.

9/5/2010. Arrived in Sydney at 10am. Left Utah at 6pm and in Sydney at 10 am except that we flew 24 hours and that it's not Saturday in Sydney but Sunday. I can’t figure this out right now.

Took the airport shuttle to our hotel crammed in the back like sardines. The driver gave a tour of everything as he was driving so thank heavens we were the 8th of nine stops! We saw the whole city this way. Learned from the driver it was Father’s Day as his daughter had just called him. Very cute.

Hotel room was small but clean. Bathroom was actually pretty nice with tiled floors and walls.

Window faced buildings except out the left corner of the window is the freaking Sydney Opera House. We have arrived! No sleeping... Too excited. Took the subway (which the entrance for is literally the next door from our hotel entrance, which my dad would be happy about because we also seem to be one block from bum central) to Circular Quay (pronounced key) And wow. The pictures say it all.

The weather was perfect. About 70 degrees and sunny.

A word about the city: No trash cans. So naturally the city is littered. How cheap it would be to fix that problem?! Plus a billion birds from seagulls (mine?) to pigeons to cockatoos to some crazy bird I’ve never seen before.

Bird poop on Fernando’s head made me laugh but so many birds around that I'm sure it will happen many more times before the end of the trip.

The Rocks area is pretty cool. Old architecture. Its Sunday so Street market galore.

Darling harbor was darling (how pathetic am i). Fun to walk around. Tons of restaurants and fountains and museums.

Ate at a restaurant in the local mall food court called Nandos (had to for Clint, Katy, and Ben) where mild means mouth on fire.

Stopped by the Lindt Chocolate store to pick up some dessert. Everything so very expensive. Bought a little box with 3 profiteroles for $13. Delicious, but pricey.

Took the subway home. Only 6pm and already dark. Keep forgetting it’s the end of winter down here. We did our best to stay awake for a while but we only lasted until 7. 7pm to 3am.

Watch for more of our vacation to be posted this week!

Travel Map

2010-09-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

It's fun to see all the places you've been to on a map. So I decided to share it with my 3 blog readers! I hope to keep adding dots to this map.

Salzburg, Austria

Brasilia, Brazil

New York City, NY, USA

Coromandel, New Zealand

View my profile

Create your own travel map or travel blog

Search for vacation rentals at TripAdvisor

G'day from down under!

2010-09-07T12:26:00.000-07:00

Just a quick hello from Australia. Just wanted to post a few quick pics of this beautiful place. We'll be writing more when we get back home. Sydney is a beautiful place!

Pictures coming back soon.

Restoring Honor

2010-09-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

What a treat it was to go to Washington DC and participate in the Restoring Honor rally on 8/28. It was great to see so many people get together and not talk about politics, but about bringing God back to the center of this country. How uplifting. We got extra lucky and even got tickets for the 8/27 event at the Kennedy Center, which was also very neat. We sat on the 3rd row from the stage and got to be very close to the speakers. It was a short and exhausting trip, but very rewarding.

Washington DC is one of my favorite cities in the world. What a beautiful place. Like last time we were in DC, we chose to stay in the Dulles area, where hotel prices are much more affordable, especially during large events. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn by the airport and paid no more than $75 a night. Not bad when you're splitting it with your in-laws! The weather wasn't too bad. Yes, it was hot, but not as humid as it could have been. Temperatures during the event were around 85-88F, with humidity of about 50%. So it was bearable. We got great parking every time we drove to the city. We parked once at the Kennedy Center ($20/day) and then we parked on 14th Street and Constitution the other days for FREE!! Nothing like free parking in DC.

Now, a few tips to those traveling to DC:
- Book a Capitol tour in advance here. It will save you having to wait in line for a long time just to get tickets.
- Do not bring a large backpack to the Capitol. They won't let you go on the tour.
- Favorite Smithsonian museums: Museum of American History, Holocaust Museum and Museum of Natural History. If time is limited, I recommend going to those. If you have extra time, go to the National Archives and see the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights. Lines can be pretty long and the documents are usually surrounded by a wild horde of curious humans, so be patient. The documents are fading, but it's really cool to see them.
- If it's your first time going there, you might think that there's no place to eat in the Mall area, like we did the first time we were there. WRONG! Just go a couple of blocks out of the Mall area and enjoy everything from PotBelly's (great grilled sub place) to Starbucks. Don't fall into the trap of eating at the museum cafeteria. You'll come out of there hungry and $10 poorer.
- If you have a smartphone, download a DC Metro app. It's very handy.
- Although the White House doesn't offer tours anymore (at least that we could find), visit the White House Visitors Center on the corner of E and 15th. It's not incredible, but it has some cool historical facts that we weren't aware of. Spent 20 minutes there and learned a lot.

Here are some photos of our trip this last weekend. Enjoy!

Kennedy Center

Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial with the in-laws

Vietnam Memorial

Awwww

Washington Monument

Capitol Visitors Center

US Capitol Rotunda

Capitol Rotunda

Brigham Young statue in the Capitol

US Capitol

White House

Kennedy Center

Restoring Honor Rally

Lincoln Memorial from the WWII memorial

White House

Ford's Theater

Hiking

2010-08-23T19:22:00.000-07:00

Utah really is a beautiful state. This summer we decided that we should go hiking more and we explore trails we'd never been to before. Here are two maps for two awesome hikes around the Salt Lake area. The first one is called Bell Canyon Trail. It's a moderate but steep hike. Here are the stats for our hike (captured through My Tracks on my Android phone):

Bell Canyon Hike (End)

Total Distance: 2.74 km (1.7 mi)
Total Time: 1:06:01
Moving Time: 34:32
Average Speed: 2.49 km/h (1.5 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 4.75 km/h (3.0 mi/h)
Max Speed: 9.18 km/h (5.7 mi/h)
Min Elevation: 1492 m (4895 ft)
Max Elevation: 1696 m (5566 ft)
Elevation Gain: 251 m (825 ft)

View Bell Canyon Hike #2 in a larger map

Hike #2 was the Silver Lake/ Lake Solitude Trail. It's up Big Cottonwood Canyon. You park at the Solitude cross-country skiing area and just follow the signs. This one is very very hard, but worth it. It's a much longer hike, but the views are just great. Lots of squirrels!

Total Distance: 8.94 km (5.6 mi)
Total Time: 2:22:11
Moving Time: 1:30:41
Average Speed: 3.77 km/h (2.3 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 5.92 km/h (3.7 mi/h)
Max Speed: 9.00 km/h (5.6 mi/h)
Min Elevation: 2640 m (8661 ft)
Max Elevation: 2922 m (9588 ft)
Elevation Gain: 543 m (1781 ft)

View Silver Lake/ Solitude Trail in a larger map

THE LION KING

2010-08-12T22:32:00.000-07:00

The Lion King has always been my very favorite movie ever. Ever. Now, I got to see the Broadway version of this masterpiece and was completely blown away. Beautiful story, amazing music and incredible costumes and set. Wow. I've really been waiting 13 years to see this show and last night I had the time of my life. Go see it.

Deer Valley Music Festival

2010-07-28T21:01:00.000-07:00

This summer we have 3 Deer Valley Concerts to go to. It started last Friday with Disney in Concert. It was really fun and the day was simply beautiful. We have "An American Salute with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir" this Friday and then next week we have the 1812 Overture. As always the Utah Symphony does an incredible job. This picture was taken last Friday up at Deer Valley. Perfect setting.

I recommend Deer Valley to anyone coming to Utah. Not only is it my favorite ski resort in Utah, but it also has the best hotel I've ever stayed in: Stein Eriksen Lodge. A deluxe room there goes from $185 per night during the low season and all the way up to $835 during the peak season for the same room. You can still pay the low season price if you go between October and early December. So you really get the best of both worlds with summer price and winter wonderland beauty. I highly recommend the Sunday brunch package for $270 during the summer. It's simply the best brunch I've ever had. If you're planning on spending that kind of money for a fun night at a hotel in Utah, skip Anniversary Inn and do the right thing: go to Stein Eriksen.

The Goonies

2010-07-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say this movie is one of the best movies ever made.
A classic!

The real summer kickoff

2010-07-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

And here's my real summer kickoff: The best friends someone can ever have visiting. Katy and Ben came to hang out with us. Katy came from New Orleans and unfortunately didn't have her wonderful husband Clint with her. We really missed him. Clint and Ben were my college roommates. We had a blast playing one of the funnest games called Killer Bunnies. Hilarious! Gosh, I miss those guys. Here are a few pictures of our history together. It's in chronological order of most recent to least recent.

Katy, of course you were this summer's kickoff!!

Ben, Katy, Can and I at our place

Oh, we hadn't seen her in almost 4 years!

At a restaurant in Park City. We spent the weekend together there. How fun!

At an amazing restaurant in New Orleans.

New Orleans Zoo.

Katy's bday at Chili's.

Clint and me in our messy apartment.

Katy and Clint while they were dating.

Summer 2010

2010-07-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

I really think that Summer 2010 will be one of those that 20 years down the road I'll look at the lady and say: "Remember the summer of 2010? Wasn't it amazing?". Stay tuned for updates on our super duper fun summer. I think last night was the official kick off event of our summer. We got to go to Paul McCartney's concert and it was simply incredible. I am glad that I got to see a Beatle perform live before either I or all of them die. Here's the clip of one of the songs he sang yesterday. Unfortunately, I missed the very first line of the song. But here's how it starts: "Hey Jude..."

Done!

2010-05-14T14:51:00.000-07:00

I'm finally done.

No more accounting homework, late nights reading cases, Saturday mornings spent with non-functioning study groups, "Christmas breaks", half.com discounted textbooks, heavy overloaded backpacks, 4-hour long marketing engineering lectures, guest speakers, finals, team building classes, obnoxiously long papers, Texas Instruments calculators, taking notes on my laptop (aka, Facebook surfing), awkward team management role plays, unacceptably high tuition fees, outrageously expensive unused textbooks, unimportant student comments at 9:58 pm when all I want to do is go home, and the list goes on.

At the end of excruciatingly painful 2 years of hardcore intensive education overdose, I'm $40,000 poorer and maybe 6 months wiser. Thanks University of Utah for my MBA diploma.

I can't wait to get my PhD!

Best pasta in the world

2010-04-11T22:17:00.000-07:00

This recipe is probably the most incredible pasta I've ever had in my life. This is a creation by my culinary genius brother Daniel. Not all ingredients are available here in the US, but you can be creative and still get a very similar taste. I have videos of this with more specific info. If you're really interested in making this, let me know and I'll get you the exact measurements. This would feed 4 Fernandos, or 6 normal people. Hope this makes you as hungry as it's making me right now.

Here are the ingredients:

- 1 box of linguini pasta

- 2 small cans tomato paste

- 2 cubes of bacon bullion (if you can't find it, use some bacon grease)

- 2 small onions

- Ground beef (I don't know how much, but as much meat as you want)

- 5-7 roma tomatoes, seeded

- 1 can table cream (find it in the Mexican food isle)

- Requeijao (Brazilian cream cheese) - maybe replace it with some cream cheese

- Garlic

- Olive oil

- Salt

- Butter

- Parmesan cheese

Boil the water with some olive oil and salt

Add the pasta and cook it until al dente

Dice the onions

Melt some butter and add some olive oil to it

Add the onion to the oil and butter and cook it until yellow

Add the garlic to the onion

Start working on the tomatoes.

Cut them in 4s and then dice them small.

Add the ground beef to the onions and garlic.

Brown the ground beef with the lid closed for about 10 minutes or so. Make sure it doesn't burn.

Cut the bacon bullion into small pieces.

Add the bullion to the cooking meat.

Your meat should start looking like this after about 10 minutes.

Add the tomato paste to the cooked meat.

Add a couple of cans (tomato paste can) of water and keep boiling

Add the diced tomatoes to the mixture.

Let it boil for about 10 or 20 minutes (I can't remember exactly...)

After a little bit, add the tomato sauce (about 1 can of regular tomato sauce)

Add about half a cup of requeijao

The sauce should start looking like this.

Turn it off and add the can of table cream.

Add the sauce on top of the pasta and grate some cheese on top of it.

Enjoy it with some Guarana and eat until you pass out.

Brazil

2010-04-01T20:45:00.000-07:00

So last week I got to go home and spend some time with the family. I had a wonderful time seeing everyone and meeting family members I had never met before. The food was glorious. I absolutely loved the amazing gluttonous moments I had there. My next post will be my brother's unbelievable pasta recipe. Stay tuned.

The most wonderful part of the trip was my Saturday night conversation with my dad about our family history. It was amazing to learn so much about my heritage. My father's been finding lots of names and people and it's just awesome. He gave me a huge binder with a lot of information about our family history. I have about 100 names ready to go to the temple. I am so happy. I even have pictures my dad found that are amazing. Here's a picture of my grandfather's great grandfather, Manoel Camilo. Old old old picture. I've done a little bit of photoshop work on it to clean it up.

I've added here just a few pictures of my time down there. Enjoy!

My beautiful niece Clara

Cousin Manuela

Clara

Nephew Rafael showing me how strong he is.

Mom and sister-in-law Cris

Sudoeste

Potira, my best friend in high school. Or I should say Dr. Potira (she's finishing her PhD!)

Cousin Sophia

At Capital Steakhouse

Avocado popsicle. Yum!!

Sister Luciana and nephew Bernardo

Niece Fernanda, nephew Nicholas and cousin Joao

My beautiful niece Fernandinha

My nephews Bernardo and Nicholas

My beautiful niece Barbara

Part of the family at pizza place

Old friends from school

The most incredible pasta ever made. Thanks Daniel.

Mom and dad at church.

Lunch made by Tia Inez. Thank you!

Brother Daniel, his wife Cris, and kids Rafael and Clara.

Mom and Dad.

The woes of thirtyhood

2010-03-01T19:25:00.000-08:00

Turning 30 has been one of the strangest events of my life. Although having a party and getting presents was fun and all, things just haven't been the same since the fateful three decade anniversary of my arrival on planet earth. Here are some of the things that have happened since January 27th, 2010:

- I've gained 2 lbs;

- I noticed I'm actually balder than I previously thought;

- I've had bronchitis for 4 weeks;

- I couldn't handle cross-country skiing for more than 1 hour;

- I am ready to go to bed at 7:30 pm;

If I'm breaking this badly at age 30, what's going to happen when I'm actually old? Oh boy.

Happiest place on earth

2010-02-11T20:32:00.000-08:00

So the pretty lady and I were at Disneyland last week. What an incredibly fun place. We had a lot of fun, especially because there were no lines! This is by far the best time of the year to go. The longest line was probably 15 minutes long. Saturday was a lot busier, but still, not bad, especially when compared to the last time we were there.

I just wanted to post this little video I took one of the times we rode California Screamin', which is by far my favorite ride. Have fun and enjoy!

The joy of bureaucracy

2010-01-21T21:32:00.001-08:00

Dealing with government agencies has been an extremely unpleasant experience, as always. I really don't understand what makes a person want the government to take on more responsibility. Their lack of commitment to quality of service is staggering. Their inability to perform mundane tasks such as return a phone call, send an email, or just smile, is not only blatantly obvious, but also expected. Handling the public, the very people who fund them, seems to be as foreign to them as lobster milkshakes.

First comes the DMV. The length of those lines should actually be against the law. The woman who helped me there told me the following after I expressed my frustration for having gone there twice, waited a total of 4 hours, and accomplished absolutely nothing: "I just come here, get my paycheck and go home. Sorry, but I can't help you." All I wanted was to renew my driver's license. Does it really sound that complicated?

Next, I ventured visiting the ever incompetent Social Security office, with its 67 chairs for patiently-waiting "customers", and its oh-so-unhelpful 2 open service windows. After waiting foolishly for 45 minutes, and watching none other than 6 poor souls be helped, I decided that requesting a new card was really not as important as my uttermost need to stay sane.

Here's the deal. Some may say that dealing with banks, cable companies and cell phone providers is just as frustrating. There's some truth to that. However, I can choose to not use them anymore. Sorry AT&T, you're just too expensive, so I'll move on. Forgive me, DirectTV, I'm just not willing to wait on hold any longer. See, it's easy to get rid of them. But there's really no perplexing and challenging choice dilemma when it comes to the government, is there? My options are not limited. They're just non-existent. So too bad for all of us, the actual financial sponsors of this belligerent monster called government.

I'm back

2010-01-14T11:57:00.000-08:00

I'm back, folks! Your favorite pseudo political commentator/world analyst/ chef extraordinaire. Am I full of myself or is that how I really see my role in society? I guess a little bit of both.

I don't have much to say right now, so I'll just share a gastronomical experience I had in Vegas last week. I was there for CES 2010 with my company. Our PR agency, Alpaytac, invited me, our company president and one of our VPs to dinner at Daniel Boulud's Brasserie at the Wynn. It was by far one of the most incredible eating experiences of my life. Living in Salt Lake, we don't get many options for high end restaurants, which is a complete shame. So this made the experience in Vegas even more incredible.

The atmosphere was just incredible. From inside the restaurant you can watch a show that plays about every 20 minutes right outside. It's quite an awesome experience.

The servers were very friendly and polite. Now, be prepared to spend a very pretty penny there. This is not Outback, so not only do you pay for every single thing that comes to your table, but also your food doesn't come within 5 minutes. Be ready to wait a little bit. The average price for an entree is $45. Side dish average is $20.

I had a delicious salad to begin, then an amazing French Onion soup. The top of the soup was covered in really thick cheese. Wow. Then my main dish was a filet mignon on a bed of super green spinach with baby potatoes on the side (marvelously seasoned). The filet was covered with a buttery sauce, similar to a hollandaise sauce, but a little sweeter. I could actually taste a little bit of coconut in it. I asked for it medium well, and that's perfectly what I got. The filet was so tender that I could have cut it with a spoon. This was by far the most delicious piece of steak I have ever had. Unreal! Worth every penny (although I didn't pay for it). We also had a cheese platter on our table that was just wonderful. I even asked the server to write down the names of all the cheeses for me so I could find them later. Mmmm...

Check out their website: http://www.wynnlasvegas.com/#dining/dbBrasserie/

Brazil's having the best week ever

2009-10-05T18:16:00.000-07:00

Brazil is having the best week ever; and so am I.

There's a very prominent disease that attacks Brazilians in general, knocking us off our feet, threatening to diminish our value, ensuing feverous fear and incompetence that is nothing but psychic tricks brought on by a lack of self-assurance and a history of consecutive failures. Brazilians suffer from LNSF, or Low National Self-Esteem. Sure, we’re proud of our 5 World Cup titles, our paradisiacal beaches and our warm and loving people. But deep inside, we all want and need more. There’s an innate need in all Brazilians that screams hoarsely: “Look at me! I’m really really cool!”

This week Brazil received another dosage of a much-needed antidote that may forever defeat this sad case of LNSF. Hosting the 2016 Olympics for us means more than just a summer event full of foreign crowds and rowdy sports maniacs. In fact, the 2016 Olympics will be hosted in the middle of Rio’s brutal blistering winter. The 66 votes that elected Rio to host the summer games were nothing but loud affirmations by the rest of the world that exclaimed somewhat skeptically: “YES! We believe in you?” But we don’t care about the side effects of skepticism. We beat Japan, Spain and mighty Obama’s America. We’re hosting the World Cup and the Olympics 2 years apart, the most important sports events in the planet. We survived this nasty economic swine crisis and even improved, while the rest of the world continues to show high fever and constant hemorrhage.

Brazil is pulling itself out of its self-proclaimed comma. It has planned, created and applied a powerful vaccine that has been slowly destroying the harmful and destructive effects of LNSF. All we needed was the IOC to sign our hospital release papers.

It’s our turn to show the world that we are indeed that cool; that our beaches are actually that beautiful; and that our people are proud, happy, loving and loud. Bring on the world. We’re ready.

Don't call me a racist

2009-09-15T18:05:00.000-07:00

True or False:

Fernando is a racist because he doesn't agree with an African-American president's point of view.

According to Ms. Susan Jacoby, a Washington Post reporter, the correct answer is "true". I wanted to write something about racism because that's a hot topic right now, and I stumbled across one of Ms. Jacoby's article after googling the word racism and finding her belligerently obnoxious articles to be the top option. I read her article during my corporate strategy class, and don't recommend you read it in such situations (during church, school or funerals); the urge to laugh out loud is hard to be restrained and can be offensive to people around you.

Here are some snippets I pulled from it (with my brief comments posted after the quotes):

"Seniors are the only people in America who enjoy guaranteed, government-financed access to health care as an entitlement. And some of them don't want younger Americans to have the same entitlement, because they fear the money to pay for any program will come out of cuts in Medicare."

Me: Right. That makes sense. You dirty evil old people! No more bingo for you.

"Many Americans spent a good deal of time last November patting themselves on the back for having elected an African-American president. What we are seeing now is the bitterness of an unreconciled minority that will never accept the legitimacy of that election."

Me: Ok. I get it. So I guess what you're saying is that if Obama were a white president, there wouldn't be as much disagreement on universal health care, bail outs, massive government spending and redistribution of wealth, right?

"Maureen Dowd of the New York Times told it like it is in her op-ed column Sunday, when she said that the real meaning of South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst during President Obama's health care speech was not "you lie" but "you lie--boy." No one wants to admit this--the white male talking heads on cable TV are searching for almost any explanation other than racism--because what it says about the state of our union at the moment is too disturbing."

Me: Oh, I see... When you say someone is lying, what you mean is you dislike them because of their skin color. I understand it now. Thanks for the social studies lesson!

"Were any liberal congressmen yelling "you lie" at Bush during his State of the Union speeches? (...) No, we liberals were doing what we generally do--expressing our dissent in writing. Real wimps, we are."

Me: Of course! Here's some of the "writing" I found online expressing the liberals' dissent with President Bush:

Now, Ms. Jacoby, don't call me a racist. I disagree with Obama because his policies are terrible. Stop labeling all of us who disagree with this administration as racist hate mongers. Now, get off your high liberal horse, and go find something else to write about to cover up this administration's complete incompetence.

Sweet Victory

2009-09-08T18:30:00.000-07:00

There's one thing that Brazilians really look forward to when it comes to soccer: beating Argentina. The more important the competition, the higher the stakes. Saturday, Brazil played Argentina for the South Africa 2010 World Cup qualifiers. Only 32 countries qualify for the World Cup every 4 years, 4 of those countries being from South America. Brazil is currently the leader in the South American qualifiers, and they needed to beat Argentina on Saturday to qualify early for the World Cup. Now, if you know Argentina's soccer team, you'll know beating them in them in their home turf is a very very difficult task. They have Leonel Messi, one of the best players in the world, and their coach is Maradona, one of the best soccer players in history. Argentina is struggling to qualify for the World Cup and beating Brazil is essential if they want to qualify. Then Saturday came. Watching Brazil play that well almost brought tears to my eyes, especially after seeing the faces of Maradona, Messi and Tevez, in complete unbelief and disappointment. If I were from Argentina, I'd just pack my bags and move to Brazil and beg for Sports Refuge. Kaka and Luis Fabiano are just ridiculous. What they did in that field is what makes Brazil once again the best soccer team in the world (Fifa Ranking as of Sept 2). http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html

Here's a video (in Portuguese) with the highlights of Saturday's game. Just watch how incredible Kaka's passes for the 2nd and 3rd goals were. I think he sees the field from a TV camera view, like I see the field when I'm playing FIFA 09 on my Xbox. It's crazy!!!

Best day of my life.

2009-08-24T07:44:00.001-07:00

This post was mostly written by Candace. This was just great. Here you go:

Yesterday we had the experience of a lifetime. Our temple was dedicated today. It’s hard to write about because I am at a loss for words but I’ll give it my best shot. The whole experience was really just incredible. But that doesn’t really tell you a whole lot, huh.

When we first found out we were in the new temple’s district we were told it would be unforgettable. I thought about the different temple open houses I had seen and was excited because in a million years I never thought we’d be able to be involved in such an undertaking.

Our first assignments came with the open house. For some reason (that Fernando and I cannot figure out) our stake was given many days to assist at the open house for the temple. The open house ran for 2 months and we had 4 days along with additional random assignments. Other people from other stakes seemed to have one day or two days total. Based on this, you’d think we live close to the temple or are a host stake but we are actually the furthest stake in the district. We live a whole 30 minutes away (I know. It’s Utah. We have 5 temples within 30 minutes).

Notice the tents surrounding the temple to keep people in the shade. I read an article stating that there were almost 600,000 people going through the temple during the two months. 'Course we went on the tour 3 times so thats actually close to 599,996 people.

So for each day of the open house our ward alone needed something like 60 volunteers. We helped usher, host, and clean the building. I must say even though smiling and swooping your arms in the direction visitors should walk was fun, cleaning the temple was much more fun. We even got to vacuum the celestial room. During the time of the open house we also dragged as many people to the open house as possible, bringing our total visits to the temple during the open house period to 8 visits. We know that temple in and out.

It’s a beautiful temple where the spreading of natural light seemed to be the main architectural feature. They used walls of frosted glass to allow the light to sweep throughout the temple instead of solid normal walls.

The chandeliers are in a unique star shaped pattern and hang 15 feet tall in the celestrial room. (Have you ever seen something this pretty?)

The temple contains three times more pictures of Christ than any other temple, including a painting of the resurrection where Christ is speaking to Mary Magdeline which Fernando and I fell in love with (and are dying to figure out who the artist is so we can buy it for our house). All the art work was digitally remastered to make the colors brighter and more unique. The baptismal font is surrounded by rich wood and beautiful stone. The colors surrounding it are so vibrant (and yes, we got to clean here too and we even got to go down to the basement and walk around the oxen).

The endowment rooms are painted by hand by a local artist. Its going to be fun to find all the little animals on the walls while I try to stay focused.

My favorite feature is the double grand staircases in the center of the building with another 15 foot chandelier. It looks like something out of a fancier Bellagio. It is definitely the most beautiful temple that I’ve ever seen and it makes me very proud that it is ours. This temple feels much more like a really really nice house, rather than a building with hallways and rooms. Everything seems much more open and inviting. We could definitely see ourselves putting these staircases in our mansion in heaven (yes, we're saving for that down payment).

The second big undertaking our family was involved in is that Fernando was asked to sing in one the dedicatory choirs. So yes, Fernando got to sing in the celestial room literally right behind President Monson (about 2 feet behind his chair). At first we were told spouses wouldn’t get tickets to the dedication to watch our spouses perform (which I was ready to revolt about) but then we were able to get tickets after all (which was very good).

The celestial room seating was reserved (I’m pretty sure) and the remaining seating throughout the temple was first come first served. So Mateus (who we also were able to get a ticket for) and I got a couple of seats in the terrestrial room. Little did we know, Fernando was just on the other side of the curtain with his choir.

This is what his perspective would have been while he was singing. Well, take out the furniture and add chairs, and the back of Pres. Monson and Pres. Eyring's head, but still... just not fair.

Fernando: It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Everything about it was amazing. It was hard to see a dry eye as we were singing (I'm hoping that's a good thing). We sang "Oh My Father", "Behold the Mountain of the Lord", "Song of Praise" and the Hosanna Anthem. Sister Dibbs, President Monson's daughter was sitting there in the front and she pretty much cried during the whole session. The talks were beautiful and the spirit was very strong. President Monson told us a beautiful story about some members in Guatemala who wanted to go to the temple (this is probably in the early 70's) and the closest temple to them was the Mesa Arizona temple. The temple president was anxiously waiting for these members to arrive, but they were 3 days late and had no sign of where they were. The temple president went to his office and prayed that these poverty-stricken members would arrive in safety. After he got up from his prayer, he just felt that these members would be arriving that day and that all the temple workers should get ready for their arrival. The temple president contacted these workers and asked them to get their homes ready to host these Guatemalan members. He also asked them to prepare the temple cafeteria to feed them that night. He then went to the street in front of the temple and just waited. After a few hours a rickety bus arrived. The bus was falling apart. The trip took them a lot longer than predicted. The bus had broken down and their arrival was delayed. When they got out of the bus, one of these members hugged the temple president. The temple president told them that they had a feast prepared for them and that they also were going to be staying with the members in the area. This Guatemalan member said they were not hungry, but their children were; they had not had any food for 3 days. They had spent all their money fixing the bus, and didn't have enough to buy food during the trip. These families were able to visit the temple and get sealed there. What a story! After the benediction, President Eyring looked at us and just gave us a big smile and said Thank You. President Monson got up and looked at everyone in the choir and said "Thank You". Then he looked at me and the other men standing right in front of him and said "You will never forget this day, will you"? A few of us responded "no" and President Eyring said "Neither will we". There's absolutely no way I'd ever forget this day. What an incredible opportunity.

You’d think, being so close to the celestial room, where everything was happening, we would be able to just hear what was happening, but we couldn’t hear a single noise, even the choir. Knowing this, they televised the dedication to each of the rooms.

The dedication was beautiful, but most exciting, was getting to see President Monson and President Eyring. They passed by our room on the way to the celestial room and waved. And I swear, President Monson looked right at me when he waved (but I’m sure everyone else will claim that too). I thought that was as lucky as I would get but then at the end I got to see him again walking through the building. I thought I was really lucky at that point, but then after we exited, we went and got our camera from the car to take some pictures and walked over to the front of the temple.

And as we were taking pictures, President Monson, President Eyring, and Elder Hales were coming out of the building. So we got to stand literally 3 feet from him (wow!). It was awesome.

Elder Hales

President Monson and President Erying

And more

At this point we were really late in meeting some friends for a wedding reception so we had to go but Mateus stayed, and like a good stalker, he went and found President Monson in a parking lot and introduced himself and got to talk to him for a while (no fair)!

Sad example of Universal Healthcare

2009-08-07T14:32:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, a dear friend passed away, after a 5 year battle against uterine cancer. Luciana Barbara worked for our family for almost 10 years, and left behind 3 beautiful daughters. She also left us a gracious example of kindness and hard work, always accompanied by a shy smile and a soft voice.

Luciana's unsuccessful battle was aided by a struggling and inefficient healthcare system that destroys hope and shatters futures. The Brazilian universal healthcare system is a shining example of what a country should never attempt to do. Luciana was supposed to start a new treatment on August 10. She passed away on August 6. Two reasons stopped her from starting the treatment earlier: (1) she was waiting in line for 2 years for her turn to start treatment; (2) when her turn finally came, back in January 09, the machine used for this treatment broke (due to government bureaucracy and the unbelievable system ineptness, the machine was broken for a period of 8 months, during which several patients were neglected adequate treatment).

Now, am I just unruly, un-American or misinformed if I don't agree with the blatant stupidity outlined in 1017 pages of ego-stroking words and empty promises? Or am I just one more sober voice, fighting for my freedom to choose and the future of my children? I believe I am the latter. If we allow this corrupt and nefarious pack of bullies to surreptitiously take over every aspect of our lives, the result will be inevitable: a waiting line, a treatment 8 months too late, and another sad blog entry describing the predictable fate of us all.

Fernando's Ciabatta Pesto Burger

2009-07-25T20:09:00.000-07:00

After going to Granato's today and buying some amazing bread, I felt inspired. Granato's is an awesome Italian food store here in SLC on 1300 South, right across the street from Walmart. It was about 95 degrees outside today, so although I wanted to cook, I didn't want to do too much using the stove or oven. So I decided to fire up the grill and make a burger. I just wanted to create a burger that I would enjoy cooking as much as I would enjoy eating. So here's my contribution to the culinary world:

Meal: Fernando's Ciabatta Pesto Burger

Drink: Passion Fruit Juice

Playlist: Rufus Wainwright - Release the stars

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Servings: 4

Calories: A lot

Pesto

- 25 to 30 large basil leaves

- Mint leaves (about 1/4 cup)

- Parsley leaves (about 1/4 cup)

- 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

- Pine nuts

- 1 clove garlic (minced)

- 2 tbsp. lemon juice

- Salt and pepper

- Roast pine nuts with some butter on skillet until golden brown

- Mix basil, mint, parsley, roasted nuts, cheese, lemon juice and garlic in the food processor until pasty.

- Slowly add olive oil until completely mixed in

- Add salt and pepper to taste

Burger

- 1 lb. ground beef

- 1 egg

- 1 slice of white bread

- 2 tbsp. Parmesan cheese

- 1/4 cup Balsamic vinegar

- Mix all ingredients in bowl and make flat and large patties

- Grill burger on low until cooked perfectly

Extras

- Ciabatta bread (Brown it on top rack of grill for about 5 minutes)

- Grilled onions (Add some Balsamic vinegar to give it a little more taste)

- Grilled mushrooms (Unless you hate it)

- Tomato slices

- Feta Cheese

- Lettuce or Spinach

Assembly

- Spread Pesto on bread

- Add burger

- Add Feta cheese

- Add grilled onions and mushrooms

- Add greens

- Add tomatoes

- Eat like crazy

Dear Mr. President

2009-07-15T18:49:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. President,

I’m so sorry to hear about your teleprompter’s passing. I hope you can find a replacement soon. America needs you to be fully functioning in these difficult times. I pray for you during this time of sorrow.

I am so excited we’re moving forward to get rid of those rich, arrogant bastards that dominate this nation. I would propose taxing them even more; 5.4% extra is just not enough. They have enough to give to share with everyone, right? As you continue to push your inspired agenda to narrow the gap between the bastards and the unfortunate by making the rich poorer, the poor more dependent on government and the government larger, I am positive that America will come around and start supporting you again. What’s happening now is just a media ploy to try to destroy you. Even the NY Times is now blaming you for the increased unemployment since January. What are they thinking? After 22 Obamic covers, they now decide to turn against you? Don’t they know that you inherited a mess from the previous government? Maybe Gibbs should start focusing on blaming Bush more. That may help increase your support once again.

Thank you for fixing our health system. What an amazing plan! I hope we will see an addition to include pet care soon. Is that in the plan for the near future? Neville is just getting too expensive.

Some of the ignorant Republicans are saying you won’t be able to pay for all this. I don’t believe it, but just in case that happens, here are a few suggestions on how you can raise some more money:

- Tax on taxes. I know it sounds strange, but it makes sense. If you get taxed 25% on your income, tax 5% on that 25% to cover the government’s expense of taxing them.

- Williams Sonoma Tax. People who shop at expensive stores, such as Williams Sonoma, Banana Republic and Nordstrom should pay more taxes. If they can afford it, let’s make sure they don’t anymore.

- The 3^rd baby tax. People who have more than 2 babies will have to pay a fee of up to $2,000, depending on the size of the baby. This is a matter of global warming. With more people populating the country, they are in essence contributing to increasing the amount of CO2 being released into the atmosphere. It’s like an air-conditioned room with too many people in it. Have you noticed how it’s like not having A/C at all? Same concept, but on a larger scale.

- The George Bush Tax. To make up for the mess that George Bush made, every person who voted for Bush will have to make up for it by paying increased taxes. It shouldn’t be up to you to fix his mess.

Keep me posted on your decisions.

Fernando

Opinion

2009-06-09T15:02:00.000-07:00

MSNBC has finally made it. Going from newsmedia adopted middle stepchild to Obama's angelic Portuguese water bitch wasn’t an easy task, but they certainly sold their already damned soul to cruise ahead of continuously dwindling CNN. While Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews embrace their openly gay marriage with Mr. Obama’s administration, the audience is left hanging, gasping for air, choked by the unscrupulous and unashamed absurdity displayed in full high definition. This time, Hardball joined forces with partner in crime Newsweek editor Evan Thomas to up the ante a bit, and deliver what I believe to be the media’s most daring feat yet. God himself now joins the ranks of Superman, Jesus and Lincoln. I keep wondering when the veil will be lifted and the blindfold untied. But then I realize that everything is actually clear. There are no blindfolds or veils, no fuzzy pictures or photoshopped charicatures; only brown nosing morons who misinterpret incompetence for grace and disaster for triumph. Now sit back, turn the volume up and enjoy 37 seconds of entertainment brought to you by the one and only MSNBC.

Dear Mr. President

2009-06-07T20:26:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. President,

I know it’s been a while. I’m sorry I wasn’t by your side when you broke through the clouds of unfairness and prejudice with Judge Sotomayor’s nomination. But boy, am I glad to see such a non-biased, merit-based, affirmative action inspired nomination. What an amazing fuerza she will be for my people. I’m thrilled our highest court will have someone who can definitely make better decisions than Judge Roberts and other white males, based on her experiences and race. It will be a treat to see how the law will be interpreted/thwarted by la jueza. You should consider hiring her on the side as an advisor for Latin issues. That might help her get out of debt, pay off some credit cards, etc.

Nice speech in Cairo! I’m sure those Hammas guys will understand your point of view. Who wouldn’t? Your name is Hussein, you used the words blood and tears, and you sported a nice mustache. Can’t get much better than that.

Speaking of mustache, wow! Very 1930’s classic German. On the other hand, I think some people saw it as if you were doing that to support Judge Sotomayor. It was very macho Latino. Might actually work well for her.

I’ve compiled a few facial-hair styles you might want to consider in the near future. Let me know which one you think is best.

Munich, Day 4

2009-05-20T19:55:00.000-07:00

02 May:

A semi relaxing sort of day.

Relaxing breakfast. Train ride to Dachau which was "easily accessible by train". Too bad easily accessible means 40 minute walk from the train. Forgot water. In small town with no shops to get water.

Felt lost about every 5 minutes but that's normal for here since there are no signs anywhere. Grumpy! But we did finally make it.

This is the map of our walk from the train station to the concentration camp.

View Dachau in a larger map
Dachau:

1st of 22 concentration camps in ww2. Very few words to express. Horrible. One of the most angering places I've ever been. Makes u wonder what excuses Germans have/had for it happening.

Torture. Human experiments on ridiculous concepts. Allowing crazy doctors to run wild. Religious and political prisoners since 1933. Saw lying media coverage in the day. Crazy how it only took a few years to go from normal to crazy. Pride. Economic downturn. Trashing capitalism as not fair. Electing fringe leader that says he's fighting for your rights; what you're entitled to, not realizing what he stood for or not caring. Political leaders who fear and install fear in everyday citizens about other everyday citizens. And it only took a few years, literally less than 4 from time of election to start the murdering. Meanwhile the whole town/city looks the other way. Extremely humbling. Makes u never want to stay silent about anything that seems the slightest wrong ever again.

English Garden:

3 mile long (as if we hadn't had enough walking) park. Rivers with surfers.

Lots of gravel. Biergarten where I got to fill up stein with coke. Started immediate downpour during meat and potatos. Chaos. Walked and walked and walked.

MarianPlatz:
Wondered around. Ate yummy ice cream. No good trinket shops to buy mother's day present or little presents for everyone else. Sorry mom. Looks like everyone including mom is just getting chocolate.

Salzburg Day 3

2009-05-18T18:13:00.000-07:00

01 May:

Europcar on 24 Marsstra $β$ e, Munich: bad idea!
Holiday in Germany, so closed even though they told us to bring it back today.

What a headache. Fernando waits while I walk down 3 levels of the parking garage in the dark to find the service people. Very scary. Dark corridors surrounded by concrete. Locked exits. Afraid that someone will be around the corner I can't see around. No one from rental company on the rental car level of the parking garage. Jerks. Find my way back upstairs. National number says they will open at 9am but we have to catch a train at 8:47am. So we go across the street to the other location on 19 Marsstra $βe$ and they say to leave it with them. If we get charged more I will scream.

Train to Salzburg:
While on train, Fernando fears half of train will split off and go to different city. Very scenic ride.

Meet a nice guy on vacation. German. He loves Obama. He said, "Obama will increase tourism and save the world from oppressive Americans". Ugh. You think I'm exaggerating but I'm not. We try to convince him to come to Utah since he likes hiking. He says he will now that Obama is president. Like that would change his experience.

Salzburg:
One word- amazing. Nuns and high power catholic dude walking around the streets. Really. Good street musicians. Cobblestone streets. Churches. Lots of churches.

Water taps to fill up water bottles for free. Delicious mountain water. Hills. Rolling hills with the alps in the background and the stairs. Oh those stairs.

A billion stairs walked, 100 billion steps walked. Felt like giving up by the end.

Mozart Residence:
Talk about capitalizing off someone. House was great for her. Fernando was bored but that was too bad. All audio tour but very little moving. Large amounts of text and few displays but the displays were letters, manuscripts, original pianos, art. Amazing. Sorry Fer.

The quieter side of the city:

Ice cream with no taste testing, tricky to chose a flavor because u can't read the language. Gardens galore with the most fragrant flowers. I guess it's the gardens from Sound of Music. Should really see the movie again because I guess after the places I went to in the town, a lot of it is in the movie. Flowers cut out in the grass in elaborate designs.

Some high school band playing in the background (played 'Circle of Life' - not very Salzburgish). Everyone clapping that they are so good when they really aren't. Super old middle ages streets so small only two people can walk in. What did they do with their horses then? They definitely had them then, right? We see a small set of stairs that lead to where some tourists are overlooking and taking pictures. Pretty we think. We'd do almost anything for good pictures. Scratch that. We've now proven we will do anything for good pictures. One set of stairs let to another, then another, then another, until we had climbed a mountain. The videos I took from the top are shakey cause I couldn't control my legs.

Did I mention the beautiful river that runs through the center of the city? Legs still shaking, we crossed the river on some beautiful bridges to one of the top tourist destinations in the world.

Old town:

Service people very nice. Bought sandwiches (with weird meat that looks like uncooked bacon and tastes like salami. I threw my meat out) coke and water.

Found fountain from mountain water and continuously filled up water bottle. So good. Started self guided tour but since didn't read book first it was hard. How can u be sure you are in the right place and then not find a water wheel? It can't be that small. Ugh. While taking tour, found myself pretty music box piano, mini violin, Fer's shot glass (smaller than a mug) and the perfect gift for Craig jr. Not telling what it is. Fernando fell in love with city and bought a beautiful watercolor from a local artist. Saw half a dozen priests, nuns, and some cardinal/archduke or something. Fun to watch Japanese tourists take pictures with him like he was Caesar at Caesar's Palace in Vegas. Too bad he was the real deal. Priests with him were laughing.

We found McDonalds on the prettiest street. Silly.

Bought an apple strudel (kinda like a mushy apple pie with powdered sugar) and Black Forrest cake. Turned out the Black Forest cake had alcohol (We're not cut out for alcohol. Gross) but the apple stuff was good.

Fortress (all stairs and some concrete):

With wisdom, decided not to take funicular to go to fortress.

How hard can it be? Is only a 15 minute walk. Not a walk. More of a pipeline straight up a mountain but up... Yes... stairs. And of course when whoever built it 1500 years ago didn't follow stairs code so they were different sizes. Of course. After dying potentially 5 times from exhaustion just to save 6 euros, finally arrived. But the stupid villagers who built the place neglected to put in elevators, so we climbed another billion stairs on the tour.

This was the first set of about 30 of these sets of stairs. Wanted to cry. Legs beyond shaking. Cool stuff though. And the view...

If I haven't lost weight from today alone...

Took little funicular down hill. Like tower of terror at Disneyland but welcomed. I'd rather die on a downhill tram then walk down those stairs. Refilled water bottle for trip back from free for all fountain. Walk back to train station exhausted.

Train ride back to Munich:

Slept dreaming of shower.

Bavaria Day 2

2009-05-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

30 April castle Day

Car mess:

Prepaid rental car won't happen again. Arrived after looking at wrong address. Man at desk asked for license, credit card, reservation and international drivers license. But we were told twice we didn't need international driver's license! We don't need it. Yes you do. How do we get it? The consulate. Where are they? Don't know. Can u look them up? No. Do you have the Internet? No. Do u have a phone book? No. Ugh. U suck. Oh, go to ADAC, the service center. They can help u. Where is it? 4 kilometers from here. Ugh. Ok. Finally! So the race is on. Run across town. Meet nice woman with excellent English on the road. She gives directions. She's shocked they require the translation. Meet nice man on the road. He says the ADAC has moved (seriously!!!) he tells us its closer now. Hurray! ADAC is closed. We feel like it's an equalizer step in the amazing race. We wait and wait. They open. They translate for us (€20) and give us free maps (lifesaver). We run back across city to the rental car company and a trainee helps us. She is short with us but much nicer than first guy. We are given a nice sports car. Very nice. But we must return it to that specific station, they say. We leave, program the GPS to go to Fussen and notice after 15 minutes we are going the opposite direction to Salzburg. Ridiculous. We ask for directions. The wife finally pulls out map and navigates us back to Ettal. All in all, 3 hours wasted on a day we had no time to waste. going to have to cut something out.

Ettal:
We saw a monk! A real live monk! Modern, not pretend.

Car:
Beautiful. Now I know what fernando midlife crisis will be. 2 exhaust. Nice.

Autobahn:
What is up with the constant speed traps? 80-100-120-80 in the space of meters. Either we don't understand or they don't.

Driving through the alps:
Austrian segment. Was the prettiest segment. Beautiful winding roads, single lanes. Keep almost getting run off the road by buses. Lake- stupendous. Glorious.

Oberammergau:
Voted best town so far. Mom would die here. Christmas shop too cute. Ate strawberry tort in cute little bakery. Nice little old lady. Beautiful and cheap wood carvings. Stopped at grocery store. Their grocery stores are tiny!! Bought yucky carbonated water by accident. Nasty.

Linderhof: First of Ludwig's castles. Beautiful grounds. Small house. Gaudy. Video camera left on and battery died.

Neuschwanstein (crazy king Ludwig's cinderella castle):
Marienbrücke (the bridge with a rickety view):
Who the heck tells tons of tourists to walk on a ridiculously unstable really high bridge? We could just read the headlines: "Unsuspecting tourists fall to death after bridge collapse." Not to mention they had that entire side of the castle covered with renovating scaffolding. Our response? You have got to be kidding me. Worst luck ever on this trip.

Castle tour: audio guide boring and ahead of tour. Boring rooms. Bor-ing!
Trail down from Ludwigs castle:

Very slippery. Do not advice in the rain. The wife slipped and wiped out, sliding down hill. Skinned up knee and one thick chunk of knee skin sliced open. Fernando corageously cleans up her wounds and saves the day once again. 'Course cleaning up the would means peeling back the chunk and unfolding it. Meanwhile she is trying not to throw up. She has felt pretty sick this trip. Maybe it was the swine flu.

Wurst in Neuschwanstein:
Fernando tried two. The first (2.50) was better than the second (3.20). Plus they charged for katsup. Who does that?

Drove back to Munich. Parked car in tiny parking spot at hotel. Scary. Watched "German Idol". Funny. Not very talented people.

Map of driving path.

View Larger Map

Bavaria - Day 1

2009-05-06T21:13:00.000-07:00

This account was actually a collaboration between the pretty lady I took with me to Germany and myself. This was mostly written on the notepad of my iPod in between train rides. I have included a basic map of the spots we walked around on the first day, as well as pictures and videos. In the map, the green route was done on foot and the red route was reached by subway. Once we arrived at our "subway" destinations, we still walked around there... a lot.

View Munich in a larger map

29 April:
SLC-ATL-MUC. 17 hours traveling. Arrive in Munich. Raining. Drag suit cases seemingly across town to hotel.

They let us check in early. But no sleep for us. Walk around in rain all freakin day. €3 sandwich for lunch.

Took tons of pictures.

Lots of churches.

Allianz Arena.

Olympiapark.

BMW Welt.

Don't really remember anything else. Too tired.

Went back to hotel to sleep. Went back out at sunset.

Ate at Italian restaurant recommended by hotel: La Vecchia Masseria.

Best pizza ever. Gnocci good, but not as amazing. Bottled water perfect. €20 dinner.

No rain but very COLD. Wore every piece of clothing I had with me.

Greetings from Deutschland!

2009-04-29T12:34:00.000-07:00

Grüß Gott! No, I haven't given up on my blog. These last 3 weeks have been unbelievably busy with school and work. But now, since I have a 2 week school break, I'll be able to update this a little more often.

I'll post more on our trip here to Germany when we get back in the US. But for now, just wanted to post a couple of short videos of some of what we saw today. It's been quite a day already and we're exhausted. We've seen quite a bit and have documented everything!! I'll have plenty of material for lots of posts. I didn't bring my camera cable, so no pictures until we get back in the US.

If you'd like to see these videos in high def, just click on the video itself and it should open it in a new window, and then just click HD and the quality is much better.

For now, it's time to go to bed.

Auf Wiedersehen!

New toy

2009-04-14T18:11:00.000-07:00

So I got a new toy for our trip in 2 weeks. It's a Creative Vado HD. It's a very compact HD camcorder comparable to the Flip Mino HD. So far, I've only done some basic testing and I'm trying to figure out if I like the quality enough. I got a great deal on it. It's usally $230 on Amazon.com, but they were having a $100 off deal for a day, so I bought it for $130. Can't beat that. Here's a short video I took with it. To view this video in HD, click on the video and it will open a new window with full YouTube on it. Click on the HD video so you can see it in higher definition. For traveling, I think it will be ideal. I don't have to be hauling a little bag around with tape, extra battery, etc. It records 2 hours in HD and I can transfer the file directly to my laptop when I get back to the hotel at night, empty the camera and be ready for the next day. My buddy from work, Dustin, has one and recommended it to me. He loves his Vado. I'm excited to try mine out.

Next time you're in NYC

2009-04-10T15:24:00.000-07:00

When you're in New York City, how about a free great show? You can watch the Blue Man Group show absolutely free! All you have to do is volunteer to be an usher. My wife and I went to the theater in the afternoon and asked them if we could volunteer to usher and get in for free. They asked us to come back around 7pm (for the 8pm show) and help them seat people. Then after the show we would have to help them "clean", which meant picking up programs from the seats. The show was incredibly entertaining and absolutely free ($160 savings). Of course this is on a first-come, first-serve basis. So I definitely recommend showing up earlier and giving them your name so you have a better chance of getting in.

Here's a map to the theater.

Enjoy!

View Larger Map

Dear Mr. President,

2009-04-06T22:36:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. President,

I wrote you a poem about your trip to Europe and I hope you enjoy it!

When Air Force One lands with 500 Plus

Here comes the man who represents all of us

With limos and choppers and lovely Michelle

He marches as gracefully as a mighty gazelle

The queen got an ipod and a pat on the back

But who gives a damn, the world is out of whack

Strasbourg was next in this wonderful tour

G20 is over, it’s time for l’amour!

In Prague he did gather the crowds once again

While Kim Jong Il’s rocket just caused us all pain

He told all the Turks that the Muslims are friends

He won’t put our fate in the Taliban’s hands

Oh Mr. Obama, you’re such a rock star

But please come home quickly, we need our car czar

Yours truly,

Fernando

Ensign Peak hike

2009-04-02T18:16:00.000-07:00

When you're in Salt Lake and you're looking for a quick hike, try Ensign Peak. It's a little steep, but worthwhile. The reward for this mile long hike (round trip) is a breathtaking view of the valley. Hopefully the infamous Salt Lake smog won't spoil things when you get up there. You'll see here a detailed map of the hike I captured with the GPS on my phone and this is the exact trail. Here's some data so you're prepared:

- Starting elevation: 5039 feet

- Ending elevation: 5364 feet

- Distance: .48 miles (each way)

- Hike down time: 11 minutes (about 25 going up)

Enjoy!

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Dear Mr. President,

2009-03-30T20:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. President,

Below if my first draft of your speech at the G20 summit.

Dear citizens of the world,

As your co-president I come to you bringing peace, joy and hope. Before I became president, America was a nation of war and hatred. Now, in less than 80 days, America has become a nation of dialogue and continued televised presidential messages. We’re excited to spread our message of liberty and tolerance to understanding and accepting places such as Pyongyang, Havana and Tehran. Today, however, we’re not going to discuss our efforts to unify the planet, but rather our attempts to fix a failing world economy, which as Brazilian President Lula put it, has been created by white men with blue eyes.

My objectives are simple: get rid of previous deficit by borrowing trillions of dollars from China, purchasing failing banks’ massive debts and by allowing me to become reigning CEO-in-chief of GM. This is a time of responsibility. Many of you might be thinking that bringing over 500 White House employees, a helicopter and my limo to Europe with me is not showing financial responsibility in a time of crisis. But I can assure you I am the ultimate advocate for responsibility. I am so financially responsible that Michelle and I will pay for the remodeling of the White House living quarters with our own money. I suggest leaders of the G20 to start showing this kind of accountability. Instead of holding meetings in Paris, let’s go to Buenos Aires. Instead of Champaign, let’s use Sparkling Cider. Instead of Cuban cigars, let’s chew tobacco. It’s a new era of trustworthiness and reliability on government, the only entity able to rid the world of the grasps of poverty and the shackles of misery.

My fellow earth-dwellers, let’s look forward to a brighter future. It was once said: “Yes, we can”. It was once said: “Change we can believe in”. It was once said: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” History is made by the might of the pen, not the sharpness of the sword. Let’s move forward, together in a harmonious togetherness and multicultural agglomerate of ideas. Let’s not judge the misunderstood and throw them in an inconspicuous jail in the middle of the Caribbean. Let’s not allow capitalism to work its elaborate scheme to make the brave richer and the lazy poorer. Let’s not allow the pundits, the Hannitys of life, to speak freely against government and leaders.

May your non-denominational deity bless you, and may it bless the world.

This one is for Sam

2009-03-27T11:52:00.000-07:00

Neville, the cat.

Dear Mr. President,

2009-03-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

From: theviajante@blogspot.com > To: obama@whitehouse.org

Subject: RE: Back in the game!

Dear Mr. President,

Thanks for the email once again. Unfortunately White House emails are going straight to my junk mail box, so sometimes it takes me a little bit to see you wrote me. Sorry about that! But rest assured, I never see your messages as junky.

Last night’s press conference was good; solid and concise. However, it wasn’t as incredible as usual. I didn’t hear much about hope or change, and didn’t get teary eyed once. That’s not usually a good sign. Something was a little off. I don’t know if it was the large screen rather than the usual teleprompter, or the fact that you pre-empted American Idol. Here’s a few suggestions for next time:

- Do it on a Friday night – no one cares about Sarah Connor Chronicles.

- Wear a different tie – Maybe something more flashy like a white tie or a “We’ll never forget” tie with the American bald eagle and the twin towers burning.

- Bring back the old teleprompter – you’re used to that one and you look more comfortable with it.

- Hire someone to throw a shoe at you – Bush had a bump in approval ratings after the Iraq incident.

- Use PowerPoint – People are very visual. Maybe a few graphs mixed in with pretty photographs of the girls would do the trick.

Anyway, just think about it.

Yours truly,

Fernando

> From: obama@whitehouse.org > To: theviajante@blogspot.com

> Subject: Back in the game!

F.,

What did you think of last night’s press conference? Let me know.

Dear Mr. President,

2009-03-20T22:10:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. President,

Tell me everything! Did you have your own make up artist? Did you get to meet Garth Brooks? Did they have a red carpet for you? I want details! Wow, what a thrill to see you on TV (again)! You're such a rock star. I know we get to see you on TV quite a bit, but this time it was eau natural, no teleprompters, no scripts and no assistants telling you what to say. We got to see the real Barack: the father, the bowler, the myth. What a treat. And I gotta tell you, the Special Olympics comment was not that bad. Maybe you just meant it as a tribute to those whose handicaps are never compared to Presidential skills. Instead of degrading them, you brought them up to your level! You’re such a great wordsmith.

I think you’ve been handling things so well lately. You’ve been showing America that we don’t have to stop living just because the economy is in shambles. You’ve gone on TV shows, given cocktail parties and even enjoyed some college basketball. Everyone needs a break every once in a while. Speaking of TV shows, I thought I would help you plan your media agenda for the next few weeks. Here are some shows you might consider visiting.

- American Idol – Go as a guest judge. If they don’t let you, just speak to America on Tuesday and force them to push the show to Wednesday.

- Lost – Pretend the island is “Taxpayer’s money” and explain why it moves or disappears so often. AIG could play “The others” and Pelosi could be “Ben”.

- The Today Show – When you’re feeling down and sad, just show up at the Today Show. They love you there!

- America’s Next Top Model – Show the contestants how to work with a teleprompter.

- How I met your Mother – When your approval ratings hit less than 50%, it might be all you need. Ask Britney.

Yours truly,

Fernando

Dear Mr. President,

2009-03-18T20:47:00.001-07:00

Dear Mr. President,

Thank you for your genuinely convincing and transparently honest outrage over AIG’s bonus debacle. I’m angry too. But how can anyone blame it on you or Mr. Geithner? There’s no way you could have known that bonuses were coming. You were just trying to help! Plus, everything happened so fast! There was barely any time to really understand what was going on. I know Mr. Chris Dodd added the "exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009" to the so called (unfairly so) porkulus bill. But I’m sure he had no idea this was coming either. It does feel like there are a lot of things we don’t have any idea about, right? I feel like that in some of my classes. I bet you feel the same way. We’re not perfect! We all thought we could trust AIG. Alas, those people seemed honest enough. They obviously make sound decisions, like donating all that money to your campaign. It really breaks my heart that things turned out the way they did. It’s ok though. Maybe they'll use that money to go back to business school or something. Don't stress. Just go to a talk show or write a children's book and this bad dream will all go away. I’m sure the nation understands that their tax dollars aren’t wasted in vain. Lesson learned; on to the next bailout.

Yours truly,

Fernando